Recipes

Wednesday, 4 July 2007: Episode 021 Rice Noodles

Ingredients

Method

“If you’re a fan of Chinese, Thai or Vietnamese, you’re going to come across rice noodles in one form or another at some stage,” he says.

“Rice noodles are made from a thin paste of ground rice and water. It’s turned into sheets, which are then steamed, and cut into sizes ranging from fine strips to large sheets.

“Rice noodles have no gluten, and this produces a particular mouth-feel with less bite-back than wheat-flour noodles.”

Simon recommends soaking the rice noodles in water at a temperature of 50 degrees for six to seven minutes, or soak them in body-temperature water for ten minutes. The trick is not to have the water too warm, otherwise the starches will become too “excited” and you’ll end up with a “gluggy” noodle. After soaking, the noodle should retain some bite-back (or, as the Italians say, it should be “al dente”).